I keep waiting for Germaine Greer to enter the fray. In Shakespeare’s Wife, she has a lot to say about housewives making malt.

Greer doesn’t blame Ann Shakespeare for the hoarding; rather she describes the economy of running a household like New Place, what was involved in malt-making, the chief industry of Stratford-upon-Avon, and includes a petition from its citizens protesting “the royal proclamation forbidding the making of malt from Ladyday, 25 March, to Michelmas, 29 September, so that there would be more grain on the market and prices could be kept down.” (225)

Ann was in Stratford and Will was in London. “All the work associated with New Place . . . would have been overseen by Ann Shakespeare. . . . . As no [steward] appears in the record, the best guess is that Ann was both housekeeper and steward. Within months of acquiring New Place Shakespeare is listed as a holder of malt; the malt was almost certainly made by Ann or under her supervision.” (Greer, 217).

Ann Hathaway Shakespeare was an enterprising woman running a big establishment, possibly lending money, and taking care of her family. Whether her necessary and not-uncommon activities condemn Shakespeare as a greedy businessman is not for me to say, but at least Germaine Greer’s arguments (which I have read elsewhere and which James Shapiro touches on in Contested Will) should be mentioned in this debate. Apologies, Germaine, if I’m not doing full justice to your book.